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Guest
Column: State Sen. Tom O'Mara

“Jobs, jobs, jobs?”

ALBANY, March 14 -- A flurry of state and federal reports
came down like the rain over the past week. Altogether they’ve highlighted,
once again, that while most of the action so far surrounding this year’s
state budget has been centered on streamlining, redesigning, and restructuring
-- in other words, reducing the size and cost of -- government, the state
economy still needs serious attention. And the sooner, the better.

Recent
reports highlighted:

-- the latest unemployment figures from the state Labor Department showing
across-the-board job losses in Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties
at the beginning of 2011;

-- that the lack of population growth in upstate New York counties remains
glaring, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. While the
latest data shows more than half of the state’s 62 counties with
population losses or sluggish growth at best, the 34 counties that lost
population are upstate. Why? According to one prominent analyst from the
well-respected Rockefeller Institute of Government, “The basic connection
is a strong economy and healthy job growth to keep residents.”

-- on the heels of this Census data, figures from the New York Field
Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revealed a decline
in the number of New York farms. Overall, the state lost 300 farms from
2009 to last year. But one of the most alarming findings from the latest
USDA summary is this one: from 2002 to 2007, New York lost 23 percent
of its dairy farms. The losses were less during the same five-year period
for the Finger Lakes region, 15 percent, but that’s very troubling
in a region with an overall economy so reliant on agriculture and tourism.

The question again is, Why? In addition to the impact of global, national
and statewide economic downturns, the head of the New York Farm Bureau,
Dean Norton, also pointed to “New York’s unfriendly business
climate.”

So as this year’s state budget negotiations heat up over the next
several weeks, we must stay focused on the economy. There’s an undeniable
need to put in place more responsible fiscal practices across government
and to construct a foundation for long-term fiscal responsibility. But
we cannot lose sight of the most critical responsibility of all: to zero
in on beginning to turn around the state’s overall business climate
with an emphasis on sustained, private-sector job growth.

The state Senate kicked off this year’s session by approving the
“Job Creation and Taxpayer Protection Act,” a comprehensive
strategy to encourage overall economic growth and focus on the creation
of upstate jobs. Our plan would make it harder for legislators to approve
any future state tax increases, permanently cap future state spending
(since reining in out-of-control state spending is critical to starting
us on a better path), and impose a moratorium on job-killing state regulations.

One of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s favorite mantras at the start of
his administration has been, “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” His proposed
state budget contains a series of economic development proposals, some
of them, like bolstering tax incentives targeted to job creation, in line
with the Senate -- but we must do even more to make New York State even
more competitive.

So there are plans on the negotiating table – but they can’t
work if that’s where they stay. The next several weeks will go a
long way toward determining the state’s future in many ways –
maybe none more important than the future of the state economy. We have
to get it right. Albany has to take a new approach to economic growth.
You can read more on my website, www.omara.nysenate.gov.